The Luxe Restaurant & Bar — Restaurant in Waverley

I booked The Luxe weeks in advance for my wife’s 21st birthday on 19th August. We went on a Tuesday late evening and, surprisingly, we were the only guests in the restaurant. Our table was in the Dolce Grazzie Room, which was extremely beautiful — elegant décor, stunning lighting, and a setting that felt perfect for a special celebration.

We were greeted warmly by the manager, who was clearly proud of his restaurant and made us feel very welcome. Service throughout was impeccable — attentive, polite, and professional. The drinks were another highlight. We don’t drink alcohol, so we ordered pina colada mocktails (see photo) and they were genuinely outstanding — creamy, refreshing, and full of flavour.

The food started strong. The houmous with bread was superb — the houmous was smooth, well-seasoned, and packed with flavour, and the warm bread alongside it was fresh and delicious. The garlic sauce served was excellent, though the chilli sauce, in my opinion, wasn’t the best. At the end of the meal, we were also given a complimentary pistachio tiramisu, which was indulgent yet light, and a lovely gesture that we really appreciated.

Unfortunately, the mains completely ruined what could have been a fantastic evening. My wife ordered the prawn linguini. Since it’s cooked in a white wine sauce, we asked for it without. The chef reassured us with “of course, of course,” but what came out was nothing like the menu promised — just plain boiled linguini with a few spiced prawns dropped on top (see photo). My wife ended up eating the prawns and leaving the pasta behind.

I ordered the sea bass, which on the menu is described as two fillets with roasted baby potatoes, spinach, burnt lemon & caper sauce (see menu photo). What I was actually served was one fillet, a handful of plain potatoes, and a dry side salad (see photo). None of the key elements from the menu were there — no spinach, no burnt lemon, no caper sauce. It felt lazy and rushed.

We paid £75 in total: two incredible mocktails, one excellent starter with amazing bread and sauce, and a complimentary dessert that was a thoughtful touch — but two mains that were shockingly poor. Because it was my wife’s birthday, I didn’t want to complain at the table and spoil the occasion, but I left feeling really let down.

It’s a real shame, because The Luxe has so much potential. The Dolce Grazzie Room is stunning, the manager’s welcome was warm, the service was excellent, the drinks, bread, and smaller plates were brilliant. But the mains — the centrepiece of the meal — completely failed to deliver on quality and on the menu’s promises.

I’ve attached photos so others can see exactly what we were served compared to what’s advertised. I want to see The Luxe succeed, and that’s why I will return to give it another chance — but until the mains are fixed, I couldn’t recommend it for a...

We ate here on New Year’s Eve, when we booked we were given the option of the “standard menu” or the “three course set menu” in Which we selected the standard menu. When we arrived we were given the set menu where we immediately said this isn’t the menu we booked as it was ‘£95’ per person. The waiter told us this is the only menu we were allowed so I explained that I’d booked the standard menu… She then said that she had sent ‘everyone’ a message saying it’s only the set menu available, in which I showed her that I had not received a message at all. We then asked if it was possible to just have a main from the set menu as we didn’t want the three courses, the lady then went to speak to her manager who said that we can’t just have a main - which we thought was very unreasonable. We then decided to just have the set menu as it was New Year’s Eve and we wouldn’t have been able to get in anywhere else without a booking. I ordered the prawns, the lamb shish and sticky toffee pudding. With the prawns we got 4 small prawns, the lamb shish was 5 small pieces of lamb a small slice of a wrap and a bit of salad so we asked if we could have some chips to go with it because there was barely anything on the plate. The waiter said that’s fine and he’ll go and get us some, he then come back and said sorry I can’t give you chips which we thought was ridiculous as we was paying £95 for barely anything on our plates and we couldn’t have a small bowl of chips to go with it. We were extremely disappointed by the portion sizes and value for money and the fact we were forced to have the set menu even though we booked the standard one, we wouldn’t of chosen the Luxe for our New Year’s Eve meal if we knew that we would be forced to have the set menu even though we was given the option at point of booking. We also found that the service at the Luxe was quite poor, the lady who was telling us we had to have the set menu was quiet rude and not understanding of the situation at all it seemed like she didn’t care at all about delivering good customer service and made us feel slightly embarrassed for not wanting the set menu. Overall, in comparison to similar venues such as the Kara I would much prefer the Kara where the service from the staff is exceptional and they really do go above and beyond for you as well as this, you also get small complimentary extras such as bread on the table to share which is a nice touch and the value for money is always great also the atmosphere is...

Arrived just before our booking time to be told our table was just paying and will be ready shortly and to take a seat at the bar. Tried to order drinks at the bar and was told we needed to wait for table service, waitress was standing next to me at the bar oblivious and returned to my seat.

After around 5 minutes I returned to the front counter to ask them to leave our coats in the rack. There was not enough hangers so they were draped with many other diners' coats and jackets on a window ledge.

Another 10 minutes went by and the original staff member that welcomed us in came around the room to take peoples names to check whether we have bookings and whether the table is now ready. Also chased up the drinks service.

During this time, I heard a member of staff mention to another customer that their table was now ready just for the customer to mention that they weren't waiting for a table!

Eventually got a couple of drinks to our bar table, the barman that I tried to order from poured the 2 glasses of wine and handed them to a waitress who was standing around doing nothing and pointed at me. Fair play to him

20 minutes after our original booking time were told our table was ready. After around 5-10 minutes of looking at the set menu, the waitress came back to take our order, at this point I reminded her that we should have 2 glasses of Prosecco included as part of our booking and set menu and asked for some water. She took the orders and came back 5 minutes later with the Prosecco, no water.

We then had starters which were fine, overly sweet but okay and when these plates were taken away, reminded we were still waiting for some water.

Mains came, I order a Peroni shandy to be told "I think we only have normal Peroni" quite funny to be honest and this is when we realised just how new the staff must be. This waitress in particular I must add, although inexperienced, was very pleasant and friendly and when she did come back with the Shandy, I asked again for the water.

The mains were less pretty poor in general to be honest, let alone for the price, and when we had nearly finished these plates, we finally got our £6 bottle of still water.

The sharing deserts were again, okay and most was eaten. My honest opinion is that the food quality was worth half of the price charged for the set menu and the overall service, although in general fairly pleasant, was extremely poor.

In short I certainly would not recommend this place to anyone for all of the...